News

ACU one of world’s top 100 young universities

Australian Catholic University (ACU) has been named as one of the world’s top young universities in the prestigious Times Higher Education Young University rankings for 2019.

The rankings assess the quality of teaching (the learning environment); research (volume, income and reputation); citations (research influence); international outlook (staff, students and research); and industry income (knowledge transfer) at thousands of universities around the world.

Young universities are categorised as those founded between 1969 and the present.
ACU was founded in 1991 through the amalgamation of four Catholic tertiary institutions in eastern Australia. Today it has 32,828 students across eight campuses and more than 100,000 alumni.

Acting Vice-Chancellor Dr Stephen Weller said the ranking was a tribute to the skill of ACU teachers and researchers.

“Our University has grown substantially since our establishment in 1991. We have a strong presence with our campuses along the eastern seaboard as well as our international campus in Rome. This external recognition of our success is very pleasing.”

Ranked at 95, ACU is in the top 100 of young universities, moving up from the 100–150 group last year.

Other measures have also demonstrated ACU’s increasingly impressive outcomes. In the latest Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) rankings, which evaluate the quality of research produced in Australian universities against national and international benchmarks, ACU ranked first or equal first for 10 fields of research including nursing, nutrition, psychology, public health, sports science, religion, and specialist studies in education.

ACU is ranked in the top six Australian Universities for skills development and learner engagement in the undergraduate Student Experience Survey, and the top four for undergraduate employment in the Graduate Outcomes Survey.

Employers are more satisfied with ACU graduates than graduates of other Australian universities, with the University coming in number one in the Employer Satisfaction Survey.